A leading magazine devoted to science journalism says American homeschoolers are being left behind and that their parents should be investigated and have to pass a background check in order to educate their own children at home.
Scientific American, in its May issue, says “With few states tracking who is being homeschooled and what they are learning, an untold number of U.S. children are at risk of a poor education or even abuse.”
The magazine shows alarm that parents are pulling their children out of government schools at an increasing rate. It says that in 2019, nearly 3% of U.S. children — 1.5 million — were being homeschooled.
“No one knows by how much, and that is part of the problem. Homeschooling is barely tracked or regulated in the U.S. But children deserve a safe and robust education, whether they attend a traditional school or are educated at home,” the magazine argues.
“This number, calculated from a nationwide survey, is surely an undercount because the homeschooling population is notoriously hard to survey, and more children have been homeschooled since the COVID pandemic began. Eleven states do not require parents to inform anyone that they are homeschooling a child, and in most of the country, once a child has exited the traditional schoolroom environment, no one checks to ensure they are receiving an education at all,” Scientific American says.
Alaska has the highest percentage of homeschool students in the nation, with over 15.4% of families homeschooling their children. Alaska is followed by Idaho at 8.9%, Tennessee at 8.5%, and Oklahoma at 8.3%.
The magazine wants government oversight on homeschool families, just in case children are being abused. However, the magazine offers no evidence to support such an overreach by the federal government into families’ lives. Nor does the magazine address the constitutionality of such an action; the Department of Education is a relatively new federal agency, created during the Carter Administration and a growing number of conservatives believe the department should be dismantled due to the quality of public education having declined ever since the department was created and because it is skimming money that could be used for schools.
Scientific American argues that homeschool students aren’t required to take assessments that students who attend government schools take.
“This makes sense, since the individualized learning environment afforded to homeschool students lends itself to more flexible and diverse assessment modalities. While standardized tests might be the most efficient way for teachers to measure the content knowledge of a class of 25 students, a written analysis based on a recent visit to a museum might be a more meaningful demonstration of knowledge for a homeschool student,” says the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
View Alaska’s homeschool subject proficiency data here.
“What doesn’t make sense, however, is the editors’ argument that the practice of exempting homeschool students from taking the same types of assessments as their peers in a classroom setting ‘enables educational neglect that can have long-lasting consequences for a child’s development.’ This is an unscientific logical fallacy with harmful consequences, including misleading the public about the reality of homeschooling. While neglecting a child’s education is certain to have a negative impact on his or her development, exempting a homeschool child from taking standardized assessments is not a form of educational neglect,” the policy group writes, in a pointed critique of the magazine.
Scientific American also smeared Christians in its opinion column, saying that “some Christian homeschooling curricula teach Young Earth Creationism instead of evolution. Other curricula describe slavery as ‘Black immigration’ or extol the virtues of Nazism.”
While it’s true that homeschool learning can be tailored and individualized to reflect a family’s deeply held values, one main reason that more families are choosing it as an option for their children is because during the Covid pandemic, while students were learning at home, parents became concerned about the concepts their children were being taught, especially when those things were in conflict with family values, such as non-scientific gender identity ideology and anti-Christian dogma.
The science magazine, which has been published for 178 years, prescribes federal intervention and monitoring of homeschool families:
“It is clear that homeschooling will continue to lack accountability for outcomes or even basic safety in most states. But federal mandates for reporting and assessment to protect children don’t need to be onerous. For example, homeschool parents could be required to pass an initial background check, as every state requires for all K–12 teachers. Homeschool instructors could be required to submit documents every year to their local school district or to a state agency to show that their children are learning.”
Scientific American stopped doing science long ago.
It’s now just another advocacy arm of the progressives.
The need for public school reform has never been greater.
Fictional religious indoctrination is not the answer.
What he said has nothing to do with religion.
I don’t give a flying monkey what he said.
So sad! I used to read it years ago. I enjoyed it even though I didn’t agree with everything they published.
Essentially, you may do with your children as you wish, provided the Imperial government approves.
If not…
This ideology must be mocked and ridiculed at every turn. There is no such thing as enough contempt for it or organizations or institutions that advocate for heavy state centralization.
Children are not the property of the state. Parents decide how their children will be educated.
Hey more follow the science.
Like covid or gender assignment 😁 or global warming.
“But children deserve a safe and robust education,”
What they really mean, but are too “clever” to say out loud, is that they want children “robustly” educated and steeped in Marxism.
This is a huge problem. As public schools devote more effort into sexual deviancy and propaganda of every other type, parents pull their kids but do a poor job with home schooling. Frankly, I don’t see a workable solution beyond cultural collapse and slow rebuilding, or vouchers, but the public education industry will fight to the death on the hill of vouchers.
Public ed is so pathetically bad that this homeschool veteran teacher will attest that the worst homeschool is better than any public school. As practiced today, public ed is child abuse. Parents, for the sake of your kids, pull your children out of public schools!
All govt regulation of homeschooling will do is brainwash the kids into leftism. Time to tell the educrats to practice on themselves what they want to do to our kids. It’s past time for passive resistance to be effective – time to fight the monster and seize control of educating our kids.
The scripture of Yahweh is true. He says, “the poor you will always have with you”–Mark 14:7. There will always be a certain percentage of parents who raise their children on soda pop and television and neglect their education. However, believing the failed government education bureaucracy can solve this reality is a fantasy. The foolish “No Child Left Behind” trope is an impossible figment of imagination. The way of the world is children suffer the consequences of their parents’ choices. Government cannot change this reality.
School vouchers are an excellent approach but, very strong opposition from NEA and Dark Money. Private & ABT // Christian School is another great approach but, not everyone can afford it, although I believe there’s sponsorships available. I also think a worthy venture is for Families to band together and hire a few ‘talented’ Teachers to implement the Home-schooling Curricular.
Not all homeschool parents do poorly! My daughter went on to double degree in math and computer science and is now a math and computer science professor, working towards running their computer science department! These idiotic stereotypes and generalizations are not helping.
Exactly! My youngest started college at 13, and now has two degrees at age 20.
Objection:
Assumes facts not in evidence.
‘https://www.spanish.academy/blog/a-hard-look-at-homeschool-vs-public-school-statistics/
“There are many studies, and they all throw slightly different statistics. But researcher Brien D.Ray found that overall, 78% of the compared and reviewed studies confirm that homeschooled children performed significantly better than their public schooled peers in terms of academic performance.
Only 11% found no significant difference, and 4% found that conventional school students performed better.
The same study indicates that 69% of homeschooled students succeed in college and adulthood.”
Don’t confuse them with facts!
Not all parents are poor teachers.
“an untold number of U.S. children are at risk of a poor education or even abuse.” Describes the current public school system itself. Parents who opt for home and private schooling are motivated to provide quality education and protect their children from abuse. Children in public schools are exposed to harmfully negative influences, child predation and below 3rd world educational standards. The federal government has no business, expertise, trust or authority to intervene in the critical family responsibility of raising and educating their children.
It’s all about control.
If only they had that kind of contempt and mistrust of public “education,” they would investigate and uncover huge deficiencies and maybe learn more about why people homeschool. The only thing homeschoolers are “behind in” are the religions of woke and progressivism.
I good friend of mine home-schooled all 5 of her children. She demanded the best out of her children and adhered to a state program. They later got scholarships to college, graduated in the top percentiles, and all took advanced degrees in psychology, sociology, science and business. And in Alaska, where it may not be possible to get to a school, home schooling makes sense. To say that I am disappointed in Scientific American is to put it mildly.
Just because you know one family whose kids did well with homeschooling doesn’t negate the article’s point that the unregulated, unaccountable nature of homeschooling can leave kids in danger of being poorly educated or completely illiterate. No one’s actually following this trend to assess the results.
“No one’s actually following this trend to assess the results.”
On the contrary Maxine, a simple google search provides statistics of home school student performance vs their public school counterparts going back decades. Some states require home school students to sit for standardized performance testing usually in certain grade levels.
For example the average ACT college admission test score for home school seniors ranged from 22.3 2007 to 22.7 in 2013. (The average composite score for this time frame is 21 in 2023 it was 19.5) The score trended upward between 2013 and 2018 ranging 1.4-2.7 points higher than their public school brethren yet lower by 1.3 points than the private school seniors.
Source: ACT Research and Policy June 2020
So your assertion that no one is following this trend and assesses the results is simply not true and the point of the article to malign homeschooling as some form of mistreatment of kids, in my opinion is grossly uninformed and agenda driven.
Homeschooled students perform much better than their counterparts in formal institutional schooling.
Peer-reviewed studies indicate that 69% of homeschooled students succeed in college and adulthood.
Homeschooled students tend to perform above average on their ACTs and SATs.
In these standard achievement tests, the homeschooled students average between 15% and 30% more points than the students attending public schools, notwithstanding the parents’ income and education.
Homeschooled students average 72 points more than the nationwide mean performance in SATs.
The average performance of homeschoolers is 22.8 out of 36 points compared to the national average of 21.
Homeschoolers have an average graduation rate of 67% compared to the 57.5% graduation rate for students from public schools.
Sources
Digest of Education Statistics 2017
America Federation for Children
Homeschool Statistics
K-12 Parents’ Satisfaction With Child’s Education Slips
Nearly half of Americans support reopening schools before there is a coronavirus vaccine.
National poll: 40% of families more likely to homeschool after lockdowns
Homeschooling Experiences and Opinions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Finances of Homeschooling Your Kids: What It Costs, Tax Breaks, More
How Much Does Homeschooling Cost?
Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFINHES: 2012 and 2016)
Homeschool Demographics
Number of Homeschoolers in the US
Back to School Survey Shows, 47% of Parents Considering Dropping School, Going to Homeschooling.
Gallup Poll: Homeschooling Rate Doubles as School Satisfaction Plummets
Then the Feds recruit them before they even leave college with promises to pay their student loans and job offers with higher pay than the private sector.
There are far, far more kids coming out of the public school system very poorly educated. Very few homeschoolers are poorly educated. Every single homeschool family I knew during my 14 years of home educating were committed, and doing well – and I have known many, too many to count. My own two are college educated and successful, as well as healthy, well balanced contributing adults. Homeschooling is not easy, and you are with your kids most of every day, especially when they are young. Not many parents are going to make that kind of sacrifice unless they are determined to educate.
“Just because you know one family whose kids did well with homeschooling doesn’t negate the article’s point that the unregulated, unaccountable nature of homeschooling can leave kids in danger of being poorly educated or completely illiterate.”
No, what negates the article’s point is the word “can”.
It “can” leave kids “in danger”. It “may” result in poor outcomes. It “might” lead to cats and dogs living together…mass hysteria.
The vast majority of studies investigating educational outcomes between public schools and homeschooling demonstrate that these fears are unfounded. Parents who choose to forego the “free childcare” provided by public schools and sacrifice their own time to invest in their children also tend to be the ones most motivated and invested in obtaining positive outcomes for their kids.
Full disclosure: I’m a product of the public schools of 40 to 50 years ago. My kids attended the public schools of 20 to 30 years ago. My mother was a public school teacher for over 40 years and my son was a teacher for a decade in the same public school system he attended and is currently Vice Principal of a public middle school.
Based on that experience and inside knowledge of the current state of public schools, I contend that sending your kids to public schools in the current environment is tantamount to child neglect. In certain schools it should be considered abuse.
You would be hard pressed to convince me that any caring parent, regardless of their teaching ability, education level or intelligence, could possibly do a worse job educating their children than the public schools do today. And the uncaring parents, in my experience, are more than happy to pawn their burdens off on the free government babysitters.
It is not completely unregulated in every state.
Almost all states have regulations around homeschooling. Those vary, of course, depending on the priorities and principles of the people who established them, as they should.
The question of accountability necessitates the secondary question of accountability to whom? There is legitimate debate over to what extent the state has the right to demand accountability to itself but the most complete and inescapable accountability that parents have is to their children themselves. This accountability applies regardless of the education model that is chosen by the parents. There will always be those on the fringes who ignore that duty in every educational model. Plenty of people consider public schooling to be an irresponsible choice for their own families given the manifest failure of their local school or system.
The statistics show that most families do well with homeschooling. As with all choices, there will be the exceptions that prove the rule.
I applaud your concern for the well-being of the students in your area and encourage you to get involved in helping teach classes and co-ops to these students. You may, however, need to leave your condescension at the door.
Common sense “gun control” and common sense “homeschool control” go hand in hand.
Why should the government trust you to own a gun?
Why should the government trust you to educate your kids?
These are the questions communists ask.
These are not the questions you ask in a free society.
It’s not about giving a government “that loves kids better than these parents” the freedom to love kids even more by regulating homeschool students and families.
As with gun control, it’s about the dream that communists have had since the 1800’s of removing the impediment of parents from interfering with state indoctrination. If they could eliminate parents entirely and grow kids in a lab…they would do it. They have been extremely open about their work to undermine and sideline parents for over 100 years, and so far they’ve done a bang-up job of it. If you want to further the communist revolution jump on the bandwagon to control guns…and parents who homeschool their kids.
Well I guess it does make sense to educate your kids at home, given that under your gun philosophy an AR-toting active shooter could appear at their local public school at any moment.
Sure, more guns, bigger guns, and more powerful guns make everyone safer. That’s just “common sense”, right?
Actually, more gun education and safety being taught makes everyone safer. Even very young kids can be taught that if they see a gun, don’t touch it and get an adult.
“Sure, more guns, bigger guns, and more powerful guns make everyone safer. That’s just “common sense”, right?”
Actually they do WTD and it is common sense. We used to live near Tombstone, AZ many years ago. I had the opportunity to visit many people in their homes, who live there. It was not uncommon to have the six shooter lying on the breakfast table and most everyone carried. Crime was low and shootings were rare. People felt safe and were polite and friendly.
Why? Because you knew that the other guy carried as well and if you tried to rob him, you may end up the one visiting the emergency department at the local hospital.
That was clearly before all the illegals started pouring over the border in huge numbers and if you defend yourself the Federales come and arrest you…
You don’t have to carry or own a firearm, that is your choice.
As for homeschooling the statistics do not bear out the diatribe this magazine is attempting to peddle and after Covid, I bet most people don’t buy it either.
Generally home schooled students do very well on assessment test, most of the time better than their public school brethren. Homeschoolers are an embarrassment to the public school establishment, as they demonstrate that a determined parent with little or no funding can give their child a superior education compared to the billions of dollars funded public schools.
A few years ago I went to Tombstone while traveling down south. Went from 61 degrees in Juneau to something like 115 in Tombstone.
Thought I was in an oven.
Common sense is uncommon.
Only 115? Must have been a mild day.
Come on people it isn’t Death Valley and besides it is a dry heat…
Average temperatures when we lived there were in the high 80’s or low 90’s. The high desert doesn’t generally get that Phoenix heat of 120.
You obviously need to read some “honest” research on gun ownership. Not the propaganda that you have been fed in the past.
Snark does not constitute a rebuttal, just so you know.
The vast majority of parents are not teachers.
You do not know communism from nationalism, religious indoctrination from education.
Considering that many teachers are Marxists and advocate for deviant sexual practices we can be very happy that almost all homeschoolers are not taught by “teachers”.
Also, wouldn’t you be happier among your own kind in let’s say California then here among those you desise? I can assure you that you wouldn’t be missed.
How so? Please elaborate!
EVERY parent is a teacher!
They teach their children from birth, be it how to tie their shoes, the dreaded potty training, to manners, identifying colors and shapes and how to behave with others. Parents do it all!
Teaching especially in kindergarten and elementary grades isn’t rocket science, as you are laying the ground work to build on later. There are plenty of really fantastic curriculum choices for parents.
I will state again that the choice of reading material is not germane to teaching kids to read, the method used dictates the outcome.
Taxpayer; You’re incorrect.
And you know this how?
Because 3rd generation really Wants that 3rd level troll badge so any utter nonsense will do.
Cute! There you go again. You make a declarative statement without ANY rational supportive argument, clearly showing us all two things:
1) You know absolutely nothing about homeschooling and your hatred of all things religious colors everything you say.
2) You demand that all agree with you, while again not providing any insights into WHY you assert said declarative statement.
America isn’t an “or else” proposition. Debate is fundamental to our form of living as a community and your “you’re incorrect” doesn’t cut it!
So 3rd please explain to me why you think some items in my comment are in your opinion incorrect.
He just likes fighting with fellow Republicans. It happens more than you think. Look on here……
Your reply. to 3rd: “Well said!”
getting a degree in teaching these days makes you the worst students of the worst students who teach the program. you learn to teach whatever flavor of the month some grad student has conjured up, until next year when it’s another theory. these days it’s wokeness and doctrinally demanded by terrorist william ayers. he owns teaching teachers. parents, who are often better educated than teachers, make fine teachers. your rhetoric would be laughable if it weren’t so damaging.
“Taxpayer, you’re incorrect”, opinion or please show your proof?
3rd Gen, that’s why they make books and the internet, Skippy.
3rd Gen, that’s why we have books and the internet, Skippy.
That’s wildly asinine and bordering on idiotic. Curious: do you have kids?
Damn near every minute of every day raising children (assuming responsible parenting) is teaching children.
MA; We’re talking academic education with college degrees and teaching certificates and the discipline of making it to school everyday like adults that have a job.
I can see the problem with public schools with foreigners forever migrating here, lack of order, and I would agree that public schools need radical reform especially in Alaska as we are almost dead last in test scores.
MRA did not allow my last comment, maybe I’m too conservative. But I see your getting away with some trash talk 😉
So what you are saying is, that in order to teach you need a piece of paper to certify that you know what you are doing. Yet at the same time you complain all those certificated and credentialed people do a very bad job for our kids in public school? Huh?
You can’t have it both ways. You don’t like homeschooling most likely because you can’t exert control over what they teach, but at the same time you don’t think public school is serving our kids either.
Part of the problem is that time doesn’t stand still and today’s kids are tomorrows young adults. Parents, who value education, can’t wait for “reform”, as most likely by that time their grand kids are having kids. So they homeschool to provide a good education to their children to set them up for success in life. Covid actually did many parent a favor, as they had a front row seat of the kind of “education” their children received through the public system.
So since you don’t like home schooling or public school, let’s get the voucher program going and let the money follow the child, so our children can go to the private school of their choice! In the meantime be open-minded and give homeschooling a chance!
Taxpayer; Not just a piece of paper, an education and no I did not write teachers are doing a bad job., the rest of your post is incorrect.
You know, you and Micah bore me, Masked Avenger seems to get more responses even though he can be wrong, so I’ll respond to him and besides, public schooling is more of a conservative way to educate, home schooling is a liberal idea..
Hilarious 3rd! Nice try… in order to receive a teaching certificate (a piece of paper) you have to have gone through the educational institution and completed the course. Last I checked UAA doesn’t sell teacher certificates/degrees at their book store for anyone to just pick one up.
In your original post you wrote:
“public schools need radical reform especially in Alaska as we are almost dead last in test scores.”
Radical reform and improvement of test scores in my book means that the current teaching staff and curriculum isn’t cutting it and outcomes are poor.
Lastly you don’t like homeschooling because it is a liberal idea??
The history of homeschooling goes back before this country was even a nation, with many families teaching their kids at home out of necessity.
It has nothing to do with whether or not something is liberal or conservative, but if it works and is beneficial to educating a population.
They’re sovereign citizens. They always wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Nothing personal.
You know what Greg, I usually ignore your comments, because they are generally convoluted and have little if any substantive value, but THIS is unacceptable!
Don’t have a real argument? Label those you don’t like/agree with some despised name and then you can feel superior and ignore the points they make…easy, peasy and intellectually lazy!
To label all home schooling families and their supporter as “sovereign citizens” is asinine, incorrect and un-American. Liberty, Greg, is exactly that, to lead your life the way you see fit WITHIN the confines of the lawful structure. You don’t have to like it, you can debate it, but you will have to tolerated it.
Your “Nothing personal” to distance yourself from the nasty accusation you just made, is just the despicable icing on that inedible cake.
That is your condescending opinion.
You forget what it was like to go to school. Classes, recess, lunch, more classes, and home. Kids learn how to function in society. I bet you still Jaywalk.
So on the one hand you say you homeschooled your child and on the other hand you accuse a military veteran, graduate of West Point, state legislator for jaywalking because he was homeschooled. Are you the resident MRAK troll?
Why yes, yes I am
“Kids learn how to function in society”
No not really, being stuck in the same room most of the day with 25-30 of your same-aged peers, teaches you very little about society at large. None of your classmates are any more “evolved in societal norms” than you are.
What you do learn is to conform, standing in line, waiting your turn and being told what to do and when to do it. The other thing you learn is that there are cliques within your class, which demand that you exhibit their behavior or suffer the consequences and generally do not appreciate dissent and independent thinking.
BTW Greg spending 1 or 2 hours after school with your child to go over homework, is NOT considered homeschooling.
Keep your hands to yourself
Don’t cut in line. Coming back to you?
High priests of Darwinism worried that they’re losing some indoctrination & propaganda opportunity to Christian Creationists… This cry for tyranny comes from losers who are neither scientific nor American. Children are their parents responsibility, NOT the governments’.
No, just the teaching of reality. There is no conflict between evolution and religious belief.
We homeschooled our child. Like responsible parents, after school was spent helping reteach homework. Mastery learning. Try it parents. It works, rather than complaining about someone else no raising your kids right. Take some responsibility.
Educate your own kids if you wish, but then don’t be surprised if they struggle at University, discovering that their knowledge in advanced STEM subjects is deficient. Very few parents are capable of teaching the AP prerequisites necessary for a rigorous technical college program such as calculus, physics, chemistry, or biology. In that world, actual facts, real knowledge, and deep competence matter.
But best of luck to all who try!
Tell me you don’t understand homeschool in 2024 without telling me you don’t understand homeschool in 2024. I’m a homeschool mom. My oldest attended a public school that had made the list for U.S. News and World Reports Top 100 schools in the Country. She had been 90+ club every year since second grade and brought home folders of awards on awards day. We pulled her out her 8th grade year because virtual school was terrible and the public school didn’t even have the good sense to use the same curriculum for virtual that they were using for in person learning. As could be expected my child’s grades took a nosedive. We pulled her out oo catch her up. What we found was my straight A student didn’t know what the Alamo was, had a very limited understanding of how her own government works and had never heard of Malcolm X. Let me repeat her school made the list of Top 100 Schools in the Country! There are resources out there for homeschool kids and the families work together. My child was involved in a co-op once a week with other children where she had actual teachers with degrees who are homeschooling their own children for the reasons I just mentioned above. They handle the classes we can’t handle at home. We never went back. We’re going into senior year this year. She scored above average on her ACT’s is still homeschooling while attending college on a dual enrollment program. As for STEM she’s not only involved in it her major will be geared towards it. She’s competed with STEM related teams since 9th grade. They’re afforded all the same opportunities as their public school counterparts. Maybe even more so since the homeschool boom. We’ve found that various educational and athletic institutions(museums, dance studios etc.) are holding classes during regular school hours geared toward homeschool kids. This isn’t the homeschools we saw back in the day. The practice has grown and changed just like everything else over time.
WTD You seem to envision some house on the prairie style, sit around the kitchen table before the kids go out to do chores kind of scenario and think that these kids never really learn anything of value.
So here is a challenge for you. Pick up a McGuffey reader (preferably one for the 1890’s or 1900’s) and see what kids grade 1-6 learned back then at home.
Your precious STEM education comes in many forms, like learning and understanding the Pythagorean Theorem while studying world history and them old Greeks or dissecting frogs for biology (and yes there is a kit and course for that). These days you can find all kinds of courses on the internet, if as a parent you are not up to teaching AP Chemistry or Physics, or parents get together to hire a competent teacher to teach the subject to their kids. It isn’t all or nothing. The beauty of homeschooling is that it is customizable to your child/young adult and proceeds at THEIR pace. It also assures mastery of a subject before moving on.
Are outcomes different, sure, but the same applies to any and all public school educated kids. Some do well and go far others don’t.
Bottom line there are many ways to get to knowledge and the “one-size-fits-nobody” public school approach should never be the only option.
Actually, Homeschoolers outscore Government schooled students in STEM subjects. My daughter got her Bachelor’s in Russian and History at 20 years old. Magna Cum Laude. She’s the education reporter for Minnesota Public Radio.
If your version of Christianity wants to put the Ten Commandments in schools but take free lunch out of them, you are worshipping something other than Jesus.
It’s law in Louisiana.
A couple of questions Sebastian: How much does “free” lunch cost? Are those that pay for what the duped call “free” doing so out of charity or from coercion?
A free lunch is free! Somebody else paid for it! Obviously, you didn’t go to Chilkoot Charlie’s School of Economics:
“We rip off the other guy and pass the savings on to you!”
Screwing the “other guy”. It’s the American Way!
Son, stop talking about things you don’t understand.
When is a science magazine not a science magazine? This is a prime example. It has now become a political hack magazine which indicates that some of what they print is not science, but information that is skewed. Their articles will need to be fact checked in the future when pursuing down this road. Keep with the science or lose you base and magazine.
I think Scientific American needs to back up the bus and start publishing actual science. We have a great homeschool program here in Alaska and since our Constitution tells us that anything NOT named as a specific duty of the federal government should be left to the States, there is no reason for the Federal Government to butt in.
And there are but 18 constitutionally enumerated federal authorities. Education is not one of them. Neither is providing lunch to students.
Nor toilet paper but some things are a given.
There would not be a problem if the homeschool lobby was not asking for public money to teach religion, contrary to our Constitution
Oh “ Frank”…
Frank. Our family homeschools. Some of the curriculum we purchase is faith based. Some of it is not. We do not use and have never used our allotment towards anything faith based because it would never make it through the reimbursement process. End of story.
Standard testing proves this wrong
Ronald Reagan “Most Terrifying Words – ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
The problem with home schooling is that kids don’t get to ride yellow school buses. Who doesn’t love a yellow school bus? Right? Ha ha ha.
Depends on if it’s the short bus or not.
I grew up in the country. Our house was the first pickup for the school bus (the bus driver was a farmer who lived a couple of miles from us, parked his bus at home at night and started his route from there every day). Our (my brothers’ and mine) bus ride was about an hour and a half.
It was actually nice. I napped during the trip on the way to school and got a bit of extra sleep, then after school, I had time to do all my homework before even getting home so we could get off the bus and get right to chores.
We were also the last ones off the bus and I had a tradition with Mr. Amsbury (the bus driver). Every day when I got off the bus I’d say “see you later” and he’d reply “not if I see you first”.
Always thought that was hilarious.
Country folk tend to be easily entertained.
Good memories.
Obviously they did not objectively look at the science.
Joe Sniffy said it plainly as He could.
They are “our” children.
Just like Hunter and Ashley…they can be used and abused as He and “Dr Jill” sees fit.
He can pimp out Hunter for cash and take showers with Ashley without hesitation.
Give the guy a break, he’s had at least two holes cut into his skull.
If all those teachers pass background checks why on average is 1 student a day sexually abused in the US by a teacher or school worker. This stat is from the NEA.
Background checks cannot check the future.
Continuing down this path might bring… required annual birth control vaccinations for child bearing women (delivered compassionately by school nurses without the knowledge of parents); government issued pregnancy permits coupled with family consent to unannounced mandatory government training, inspection and testing; swearing oaths to government prescribed family obligations under penalty of perjury; permitee obligations to maintain population needs to deliver a balanced global ESG/DEI objectives, possibly through surrogacy. Consider the size of the government agency required to administer and study these programs. I assure you, it is one NOT too big for the likes of MOA and ASD.
Scientific American magazine lost it science objectivity decades ago, approximately in the 1990s, and is now just another rag full of pseudo-science, which we can refer to as “lifestyle science”.
The studies described here were almost certainly had a conclusion written up before they were even started.
What is alarming is that people read and actually believe this Bullsh_t.
If parents are teaching their children that the earth is only 10,000 years old (or less) then they’re denying them
knowledge of the nature of reality. That’s unfortunate and leaves them
hamstrung if they then decide to pursue a career in science. Very sad.
Apparently, not teaching your kids that life came from non life and lizards turned into birds leaves them “hamstrung”. I say, teach them them the truth, and also teach them the drab trash that the materialists are teaching so that they can actually “follow the science”, which is actually following the scientific method to learn the truth. Indoctrination happens when children aren’t taught to think for themselves and use logic reasoning to look at all sides of an argument. That happens on all fronts, let me assure you.
Your post shows you haven’t the faintest clue about even the most basic elements of evolutionary theory and seem to be proud of it. Best of luck to you if this is how you approach all aspects of science. I suppose you doubt gravitational theory as well or the heliocentric theory of the solar system. Like I said, best of luck to you.
Cman You must think your real smart.
It is obvious you have cut too many classes.
Does it not teach that life comes from non-life? Does it teach that birds evolved from reptiles? We see “microevolution” (adaptation), but we do not see macroevolution. When discussing this with a professor, he could only name viruses as the answer to question of “where do we see positive mutations?” So, in viruses (that destroy life) is the only example, unless you have some examples. Michael Behe presents the concept of irreducible complexity in cells. How does your religion of materialism counter that? It can’t. But go on telling me I just don’t understand science.
When would you ever “see” macroevolution exactly? What a ridiculous point to try and make. The proof of macroevolution is in the fossil record, and the genetic record. Do you think humans and chimpanzees are only 1/2 of a chromosome away from one another by accident, for example? Also, I don’t know what professor you talked to but there are no “positive” or “negative” mutations. Irreducible complexity has been proven to be false in a court setting already by showing how a broken mousetrap could be used as both a spitball launcher or a tie clip and therefore, not irreducibly complex. Science works on doubt and skepticism, not faith. Someone posits a theory and then this theory is subject to testing and any results of that test are reproducible. It’s not a “materialist religion” as you claim since its based on the aforementioned requirements. The only person pushing religion, and willful ignorance, is you. Since you didn’t mention any of the aspects of science I just mentioned, but rather quoted and oft-refuted book by yet another person of faith, it shows me that you do not in fact understand science.
I also hope you never serve on a jury unless you actually saw the crime take place, since, by your logic, if you don’t see something happen, it didn’t happen and that inference is a useless tool.
When they are in public school they are just a dollar sign. So much abuse and corruption is happening in the school system it’s scary. Most of the stuff they teach the kids they never use in real life. I can go on and on but I totally understand why parents home school their children. I wouldn’t want to leave my kids in the hands of people who don’t really care about the wellbeing of your children.
Nor would I. I never met a teacher who didn’t care about kids.
Which is why so many children are abused by teachers.
Well, for one, the data says differently. Homeschooled children do much better on tests, get better grades, are more likely to attend college, and make way more money as adults. Also, most people who care enough about their kids to go through the hoopla of keeping their kids home and spending all of that time teaching them, are probably not the people you have to worry about abusing kids. You know who does abuse kids? Teachers. 10% of teachers are guilty of csa, and thats only the ones we know about. Also, maby schools get sued every year for abusing soecial needs students. Then you have the abuse that comes from the other children in the form of bullying and harassment. My kids are in public school, and the learning environment maks it impossible for them to learn.
My middle son was failing social studies because he couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying because the whole class was constantly out of control. There are fights daily, and he is at a middle school out in the country in the middle of nowhere. Its even worse in the urban areas. Im an ecologist, and my husband is pretty high up there in the aviation field. We are intellectuals, and im surprised everytime we have an intellectual discussion with our teens. They don’t know a dang thing. What they do know either we taught them or they learned through their own research in books or on the internet. Heck, i had to teach them to read because common core reading doesnt use phonics and doesnt actually teach kids to read. Their school is one of the top in the state, but doesnt teach them anything.
We have to remember the public school system was designed almost 100 years ago to prepare children for factory work. Even though times have changed, the schooling model did not. It is still designed to prepare students for working in factories. It is not designed to create logical, critical, free thinking people needed in the white collar sectors that most people go into these days. The fact is they want your kids in a public classroom because they get more money. Its that simple. Its not about indoctrination, or leftist ideology, its literally all about the money. The school districts are paid a certain amount per student per day. This is why they will take you to court in most states if your child misses more than 5 days the entire year. They want those butts in the seats so they can collect on property taxes.
Not educating your child is child abuse. And if you don’t make sure your child is in school of some sort, you can be charged.
By this logic, perhaps we should send dcf to all the tribes and small, 3rd world villages to take the children. We can’t allow child abuse, right? And those children with handicaps that don’t allow them to learn, I suppose they’re also being abused. You may wanna rethink your foolish arguments, Greg.
Nope. We turned in the parents and charges were filed against parents. You backed up yet?
Are you drunk? Your reply was incoherent. Try rereading my post. And this time, slow down and work harder on your basic communication. I’m guessing you’re either a child that has just learned to read and write, or you are a troll. Maybe both. Either way, a clear example of public school success
Thank you so much. Try reading my post slowly. It may sink in. If not, there are GEzd programs available.
Don’t comment on what you don’t know. Home educated children out score and out perform the general public schooled children significantly. The desire to regulate comes from what you feel threatened by. Check out the oldest and most reliable source for homeschool stats. You’ll be surprised. Come and see! ‘https://www.nheri.org/about-nheri/
If public education federally funded teachers unionized schools were doing their jobs then there wouldn’t be so many parents home schooling in the first place. Reading 26% proficiency. Math 23% proficiency. LGBQ knowledge 100% proficiency. Studies show homeschooled children are happier, smarter, more proficient in the parts of education that matter. We get people like the one who wrote this article are mad that they can’t control everyone. But our children are none of your business. And abuse. Ha! When I go even a single day with out seeing some poor kid getting their teeth knocked out by another student or about a teacher inappropriately touching a child then maybe these people can talk about parents homeschooling. Until then, sit down, shut up, and let the adults handle this topic.
Where I come from, our state almost ranks LAST in the country. The proficiency in math and reading is terrible. The schools keep pushing an agenda and don’t teach. I’ve known TEACHERS who are fed up and have left their careers due to the politics. No wonder more families are opting out from the public school setting.
Homeschoolers are surpassing the public schoolers in almost every way…do the research.
They always have. It’s the parenting that matters.
By law school admin has to report it.
By morality, most school officials should report themselves.
Seriously? Folks like you are what is wrong with Alaska.
Parents are FREE to raise their young child, birth through 5 to 8 depending what state you live in to educate your child as you see fit, mind you this is the largest brain development for humans, but parents are not required to have public nothing. The department of education needs to be done away with, and let parents decide how to educate their child.
Abuse is more common in school where they are required to get along with other kids.
We require more from our kids than adults in the working world.
Marxist demons always go after the children first, first in the womb, then in the schools.
For anyone who does not know the backstory of Scientific American.
For many decades it was the premier popular science magazine that was of such high quality and had so many leading scientists writing articles for it that it could be found in the library of every science research institute and university around the world. It was a fantastic magazine full of first rate science. Written by leading scientists of the time.
Then in the mid 1990’s the new owners of the magazine, a huge multinational conglomerate , started firing most of the old time staff and started bringing in Corporate Drone Types to write the magazine. These were “science writers”. Who were either failed science majors not very good at science or else typical J-School journalists with some kind of eco/”progressive” agenda.
It took a while to kill the magazine but by the early 2010’s what was left was a sad parody of a once great magazine. Full of articles written by scientific nonentries that ticked all the right quota boxes. Editorials masquerading as “science”. Little more than a luxury life-style magazine that affluent types left on their coffee tables (unread) to make it look like they were informed, Much like National Geographic.
And the magazine readership collapsed. Most ad revenue was long gone even before the rise of online advertising.
So the people who wrote that “editorial” were two journalists who write low quality science fluff pieces and two people who did such totally pointless science PhD’s that they immediately went into a totally different career. Very failed scientists.
The “editorial” was written by corporate drones who work for a very large multi-billion dollar corporation which is joint owned by a German company founded by a guy who made his fortune selling Nazi party books / magazines (you really cannot make this stuff up) and a private equity company that was rebranded after its parent company collapsed in one of the biggest financial frauds of the 1980’s.
Those are the people who are trying to lecture you and set themselves up as your moral superiors.
And It looks like none of them has kids either. So what do they know about the subject. Educating your kids. In the real world. Nothing.
They are ignorant, stupid, arrogant, pretentious fools. Hypocrites one and all. Threat them with the total contempt they deserve. Call their bluff and watch them crumple.
So kick back hard. It takes very little to prick the bubble world they live in.
A caution.
Long-time reader of Scientific American, back when it reported actual science across topics to keep non-specialists informed. Dropped it when it became “People Magazine” with jargon.
A truly scientific approach to education would first inquire where if anywhere, government regulation produced net improvement.
Remember government is properly tasked with doing things best done cooperatively: defend the border, keep civil peace, enforce contracts, protect the premises of the free market. Then, as we prosper, we may afford humane welfare to the deserving needing.
When government does ANY of those tasks adequately, only then might we consider expanding its role.
The Bolsheviks will do to the rest of America they did to California over the past 50 or 60 years California was a reliably Republican state, with a majority White population. The communists could not get elected.
Their solution was to import 30+ million non-Whites who dependably vote for the Bolsheviks, completely disenfranchising the actual Americans in California. Today we’re under 25% of the population, and have absolutely no say in governance at all.
You can look forward to this happening in the rest of the country. This attack on homeschooling is just a symptom of the underlying problem.
The communists were always the problem in Cali dating back to the 50s.
I wonder if Scientific American counts schools grooming children into sexually deviant lifestyles as a form of abuse?
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